Tyreek Hill quells fury of Bills Mafia with best explanation for snubbing Josh Allen

As the Miami Dolphins ramp up for training camp, Tyreek Hill is back in the headlines. The All-Pro wideout recently put out a list of the top five quarterbacks in the NFL. Any active player who puts out a list ranking other active players is inviting criticism and rampant over-analysis from certain corners of the sports media world.

Hill's list was, admittedly, a bit wonky. He included the obvious No. 1 in Patrick Mahomes. And, of course, he included his own teammate in Tua Tagovailoa. That's fine. Tua isn't a top-five QB, but Tyreek has to support his guy. That's all good and well. The other names, however, raised questions.

• Patrick Mahomes
• Tua Tagovailoa
• Lamar Jackson
• Dak Prescott
• Baker Mayfield

Lamar Jackson, definitely a top-five quarterback. Dak Prescott? Sure, man. Baker Mayfield, nope. Last season was a real statement campaign from the former No. 1 pick, but even the most optimistic, rose-colored-glasses-wearing Bucs fan would tell you Baker Mayfield is not one of the five best quarterbacks in football.

The name not included on Hill's list made the most waves, though. He excluded division rival (and widely proclaimed second-best QB) Josh Allen of Buffalo Bills fame. Nobody should ever take these lists seriously, but Hill was unsurprisingly the target of a rebuttal campaign from Bills Mafia. Few fanbases are more passionate when aggrieved.

When asked about why he kept Allen off the list in a recent appearance on ESPN's NFL Live, Hill had the best possible response — one that should placate Bills fans and bring a smile to the rest of us, too.

Tyreek Hill admits to trolling Bills Mafia with Josh Allen snub

"That's just the fun part of it. Just getting people riled up."

Hill was joking — a clever joke, at that. He clearly accomplished his goal of riling up the Bills faithful, who did invariably hop into his mentions with some variation of 'Josh Allen owns you!'

The Dolphins' speedster has never been afraid to invite controversy, nor is he a stranger to joking around in the media. We can sit here and debate whether or not Hill should be trolling Josh Allen and handing the Bills free bulletin-board material given the state of the division, but hey — we here at FanSided are pro-fun. This is fun.

In short, Hill dropped a bomb and left the room. He put a drop of blood in piranha-infested waters and watched the fireworks from above. He wasn't trying to seriously engage with Buffalo fans. He didn't want to write a dissertation on the shortcomings of Josh Allen. He wanted to get a very vocal sector of the internet riled up, and that's precisely what he did.

Allen's resumé in the "top five quarterback" discussion is undeniable. He's 6-foot-5, 237 pounds with a shotgun arm and enough open-field agility to leave defensive backs grasping at air. Allen threw for 4,306 yards last season and ran for another 524. He's a tier-one NFL athlete.

Does he throw a few too many interceptions? Yeah, sure. He's not perfect. But Allen damn sure is one of the five best quarterbacks in the NFL, and Tyreek Hill knows it. Deep down, Hill probably wishes that Josh Allen was throwing him the football. Alas, Hill is stuck on the opposite end of the division and is destined to have this joke thrown back at him in the future because of it.